Suggestions fly, but funding dearth will likely slow action to deter those who break the speed limit on Adalia Avenue.
By REBECCA RICHARDS
Published June 27, 2003
Ideas flowed when about 50 Davis Islands residents recently met with city officials to try to solve the longstanding speeding problem on Adalia Avenue.
Action, however, will likely be months away.
"There is no funding to do anything right now," city traffic engineer Debbie Harrington said during the meeting last week at Davis Islands Baptist Church.
That could change when the 2003-2004 fiscal year begins in October, she said.
Speeding has been a problem for years on Adalia, a popular cut-through for delivery trucks and motorists known to hustle along the street at 50 mph or more, causing frequent accidents. Residents post "Children at Play" signs as a speeding deterrent.
During the meeting, resident Jeff Pugh suggested adding speed tables, the wider concrete version of speed bumps, to force drivers to slow down.
That's a possibility, said William Porth, Tampa's neighborhood traffic coordinator. One speed table with signs costs about $3,000, he said.
Council member John Dingfelder predicted more money will be set aside for speed tables in the future to pacify residents in his South Tampa district who have increasingly asked for them.
Some Adalia residents said traffic calming devices on the Davis Islands bridge might help slow down drivers before they reach the neighborhood. They suggested speed tables, textured strips on the pavement, a flashing light recording speed or narrowing traffic to Davis Island to one lane. Adalia is the first right turn on to the island after the bridge.
"People come down the bridge and leave the island too fast," resident Tad McDonough said. "Some of the worst offenders on the islands are residents."
Porth dismissed several ideas for the bridge, though. Putting speed tables there could cause fast cars to become airborne. Noise from vehicles driving over textured or rippled strips also can be disturbing. "I think you would beg us to take them out," he said.
Neighbors might reap benefits from expansion plans at the nearby Tampa General Hospital. The hospital's plans include up to $25,000 for roadway improvements and signs. One idea is extending a median south from the bridge to block drivers from turning left from Adalia onto Davis Boulevard, where there is a blind spot, Porth said. The median also would prevent left turns from northbound Davis Boulevard to Adalia.
The meeting came nearly five months after John Giammarco circulated a petition among his neighbors, asking that the city limit access to Adalia from Davis Boulevard. City Council member Linda Saul-Sena, who lives on Davis Islands, called for the June 20 informational meeting in response to the petition.
Many residents at the meeting said limiting access to Adalia was not the solution. Giammarco agreed that speed tables sound promising. He and others also said it may be time to consider Davis Islands' first traffic light, perhaps at Adalia and Davis Boulevard.
The city already has plans to make the speed limit 25 mph throughout Davis Islands. The current speed limit is 30 mph.
Before the city can act further to stop speeding on Adalia, traffic manager Elton Smith and business owners on Davis Islands must review ideas from the meeting, Porth said.
